Next week, thousands of volunteers will start heading out in the early morning darkness and, over the next few hours or days, count the number of homeless people in Southern California.

When an individual being counted is willing to provide more information, they’ll answer questions on a survey.

The local efforts will be part of the nationwide Point In Time homeless census that the federal Dept. of Housing and Urban Development mandates take place in the last 10 days of January. The counting begins Tuesday, Jan. 22.

Executive Director of City Net Brad Fieldhouse briefs volunteer census workers in Fullerton on Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019. They will hit the street Jan. 23 for the 2019 Point In Time homeless census. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A sample map is displayed during a 2019 Point In Time homeless census training session in Fullerton on Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Tranece Harris, director of external relations for City Net, attends a 2019 Point In Time homeless census training session in Fullerton on Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lisa Shiner, a former assistant director for the Riverside County Dept. of Public Social Services Lisa Shiner, fills out a survey on an app being tested in the 2018 Point-In-Time Homeless Count as Stephanie Patton, a foster care eligibility technician, interviews a homeless person in Jurupa Valley on Jan. 23, 2018. The app will be used in the Inland Empire and Orange County for the 2019 count. (Stan Lim, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Homeless Services worker David Thompson displays a T-shirt for volunteers participating in the 2019 Homeless Count at the Long Beach Multi-service Center in Long Beach, Ca. Jan. 14, 2019. (Photo by Leo Jarzomb)

Brad Fieldhouse, executive director of City Net, briefs census volunteers who will help track homeless people in Orange County on Jan. 23. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Hygiene packs that will be distributed to homeless people during the 2019 Point In Time homeless count in Orange County will include handwritten “Letters of Compassion” composed by people in the community. (Photo by Theresa Walker, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The count is used in the planning and allocation of resources to assist homeless people. And it’s a way for people from different walks of life to engage on the issue of homelessness, said Joe Colletti, chief executive officer at the nonprofit HUB for Urban Initiatives in Pasadena.

“It’s the one day where you can say who are all these folks that are homeless and why is this happening? OK, let’s go out and ask them.”

Volunteer teams are guided by maps marked with “hot spots” where homeless people congregate.

Local agencies also do a separate count in shelters, transitional housing, correctional facilities and other institutional settings.

HUD wants an annual shelter/institutional count. The street count is required every other year, although many communities also do that annually.

Technological advances

In the Inland Empire and Orange County, the paper-and-pen method of recording information will take a back seat to the Survey123 for ArcGIS field app developed by the Redlands-based company Esri.

The city has conducted a street count every other year, but 2019 marks the start of what is expected to become an annual enumeration.

An online survey over several days is designed to capture young people 18 to 25 who are homeless or living in precarious situations, such as couch surfing. The aim is to catch homeless young adults, such as students, who may not be reached during the street count.

Long Beach saw a 21 percent reduction in homelessness between its last two streets counts, from 2015 to 2017.

Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority oversees an area that has the state’s largest homeless population — about 52,765 based on the 2018 report. An overall decline of 4 percent from the previous year marked the first time in four years that homelessness in the greater Los Angeles area did not rise.

However, there was an uptick in the number of people experiencing homelessness for the first time.

LAHSA consults with USC to do the data and statistical analysis, and, like Long Beach, uses a paper-and-pen tally for its street count, with electronic data as backup. Homeless liaisons at school sites have been asked to refer families for survey interviews.

The agency has been collecting the survey questionnaires electronically since December in order to reach at least 5,000 people and will continue through Feb. 28, said Clementina Verjan, LAHSA’s associate director of community engagement policy and systems.

Orange County

This year, with real-time numbers coming in and a 35-question survey planned, Orange County officials look forward to a more revealing census.

Questions include inquiries about city of origin and ties to an area to help address the thorny issue of whether homeless people are native to the communities where they are living or have migrated there from other cities or from outside the county.

“It’s an opportunity to quell the myths and get into solutions around this issue,” said Susan Price, the county’s director of care coordination.

Sending volunteers out for a night count is new, as is recruiting photographers and videographers to document the effort. For the first time, more experienced teams will be dispatched the morning after the main count to any areas that might need a second canvass.

Theresa Walker is a Southern California native who has been a staff writer at The Orange County Register since 1992. She specializes in human interest stories and social issues, such as homelessness. She also covers nonprofits and philanthropy in Orange County. She loves telling stories about ordinary people who do the extraordinary in their communities.

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